Rally Finland: Day 3 review (S-WRC & P-WRC)

(S-WRC)

Juho Hanninen has taken his second straight S-WRC Rally Finland win, and second straight S-WRC win this year, extending his lead in the drivers championship.

“I kept a good speed all day without taking any stupid risks. I am very happy and the championship is now looking good with this very important victory. But there is still a long way to go.”

Hanninen now extends his advantage to 18 points over Martin Prokop, who won the first round. Prokop took second in Finland, albeit over two and a half minutes behind Hanninen. Despite this, he had a good gap back to Ott Tanak in third, so could concentrate on getting the car home. Tanak endured a difficult rally, leading the rally only to spin twice & stall yesterday, losing around 3 mins. He also broke a drive shaft on the Power Stage, but got the car home in third for 15 points.

Hermann Gassner Jr., in the other Red Bull Skoda, was demoted to fourth after Ott Tanak passed him on SS12. Frigyes Turan, who took third in Greece, finished fifth after overheating problems on Day 1. Differential problems and an under-performing engine left Bernardo Sousa in sixth. Differential failure for Karl Kruuda yesterday left him unable to mount an attack on the front-runners and finished eighth. Kruuda finished over 10 mins off the lead at the finish.

(P-WRC)

Kiwi driver Hayden Paddon has kept his run of form intact with his third straight win from his three starts.

“It’s like a dream come true to win here. I came here wanting to be on the podium so to leave here with maximum points is a great feeling. I’ve not won many stages but I’ve been consistently fast over the whole weekend and certainly there is more pace to come. I’m still learning the car and the new events.”

Jarkko Nikara took second after a brace of stage wins yesterday, and took a further nine today, but after his roll on Friday, he was never in the running for victory. Nevertheless, he took a healthy 18 points away from the rally, and now lies ninth in the standings after his first event of the year. Even though he couldn't win the rally after his time loss on Friday, Paddon conceded that Nikara's sheer speed was beginning to worry him a little.

“I got a bit nervous this morning when Nikara kept catching me because he was really fast.” said Paddon. “That meant I had to watch my back. But we didn’t have any problems and the team did a great job.”

Patrick Flodin endured more bad luck today after his problems yesterday. He lost fourth gear on SS15 and turbo gremlins put him even further back. At one stage he was within grasp of Jukka Ketomaki, but with his problems resolved and a good time over the Power Stage netted him third place.

“We drove absolutely over the limit on that final stage. This was definitely the worse Rally Finland for me. I had so much trouble and couldn’t really enjoy it. At least taking a podium made me a little bit happy.” said the Swede, now third in the standings.

Ketomaki had to settle for fourth, only 5.5 secs behind Flodin. Michal Kosciuszko took fifth. Local wildcard driver Mikko Pajunen ended sixth after sitting second in P-WRC this morning in his Renault Clio R3. Ultimately, the extra power & 4WD of the Group N machines proved too much for the little Clio to overcome, but he still netted the Abu Dhabi Spirit of the Rally award for an undoubtedly excellent drive.

“It has been brilliant. I’ve done even a bit better than anybody expected. The difference today is that there are more junctions and I can’t really compete against the guys with four-wheel drive cars. We dropped a few positions but I’m still really happy.” said Pajunen.

Mentos Ascania Racing drivers Valeriy Gorban and Aleksey Kikireshko finished seventh & eighth, while Dmitry Tagirov took the final position, ninth, after breaking a wheel this morning.

Rally Finland: Day 3 (WRC)

Citroen World Rally Team's Sebastian Loeb took an historic second Finnish victory this afternoon after fending off Finnish driver Jari-Matti Latvala by 8.1 seconds. Loeb now becomes the only non-scandinavian driver to win the Finnish event twice, with only three other non-scandinavians ever to win the event.

“It feels very good. For sure it was a very difficult race with the other drivers dropping behind me to make me clean the road. But finally we won and in the end it was a big relief and maybe the best win of my career.” he said.

Loeb began Day 3 with only 1.5 secs ahead of team-mate Sebastian Ogier, with Jari-Matti Latvala holding third, a further 1.6 secs behind Ogier, after the Citroen's road-order plans backfired. Loeb was expected to struggle cleaning the stages, but when it rained during the night Loeb knew he would be facing the same roads as Ogier. When the morning came and when SS12 and SS13 came about, Loeb set about winning them in such style that he extended his lead to 9.5 secs over Ogier. Disaster struck Ogier when, during the heavily rutted afternoon stages, he suffered a left-front puncture. Loeb seemingly had time to relax, but Jari-Matti Latvala began to cut the deficit to Loeb, eventually down to 8.2 secs at the end.

Latvala may have won the event, if he didn't have his rear traction problem in the morning. Changing the rear diff preload setting sorted the problem out, but by now it was too late: “It was a tough weekend and I woke up a little bit too late. Of course it’s a disappointment not to win but it’s been a great rally.”

If there was a drive of the rally award, Mikko Hirvonen would have been a firm favourite to win the award. Plummeting down to 36^th overall after problems, caused by hitting one of the very unforgiving Finnish trees on SS1, over the first three stages. He began Day 2 over 2 mins off the lead and threw caution to the wind and stormed through the field to move right back up to fourth, gaining back 50 secs. He took an impressive 12 stage wins (55% of all the stages of the rally) brought him up to fourth, only 1 min 9 secs off the lead. Another boost for Hirvonen came in the form of fastest time over the rally ending Power Stage.

Petter Solberg endured a frustrating rally, never really being able to get up to the pace of the leaders in his Citroen DS3 WRC. He finished fifth, 7.1 secs behind Mikko Hirvonen, after beginning Day 3 over 1 min ahead of Hirvonen. Behind Solberg is another Norwegian, this time Mads Ostberg in his Stobart Fiesta RS WRC. He tried to take fifth place from Solberg, but it never happened. Ostberg (sporting a black armband as a mark of respect to the victims of the attacks in Norway last week) happy with being able to take the fight to the top drivers. Henning Solberg and Mads Ostberg in the other two Stobart Fiesta's took seventh & eighth, respectively.

Kimi Raikkonen took ninth in his ICE 1 Racing DS3 WRC, but his co-driver Kaj Lindstrom said that they may well have taken seventh if a spin on SS17 hadn't happened. Juho Hanninen rounded out the points scorers in tenth, and took the S-WRC trophy for the second year running.

The MINI's of Kris Meeke & Dani Sordo were performing well during the final day, running in 10^th & 7^th overall, respectively. Things took a turn for the worse, however, when Meeke picked up a puncture on SS14, and dropped to 14^th. Then, barely a stage later, both Meeke and Sordo emerged from the 18^th test of the rally with blocked radiators. Meeke, guided by the team back at service, tried to clear the offending sand out of the radiator, but the team decided to withdraw Meeke's car. Sordo's rally only went one stage further, retiring with the same problem as Meeke on SS20.

(S-WRC report to follow)

Rally Finland: Day 2 review (P-WRC and Academy)

(P-WRC)

Kiwi Hayden Paddon is well on his way to taking his third straight with in the P-WRC this year. Local hero Mikko Pajunen is absolutely flying in his Renault Clio R3, 54 secs behind Paddon in his Impreza. Third is Patrick Flodin, who has suffered a severe dose of bad luck today, breaking his suspension & losing his brakes. He sits over a minute off the lead.

“I struggled to adapt at the start of the day but it got much better and the car felt really good. We were on tyre management mode this afternoon and it’s good to be leading. But there is till a long way to go and it’s going to be tough tomorrow.” Paddon said.

British Rally Championship regular Jarkko Nikara, who is driving in the place of Anders Grondal, began the day with half a second in hand over Flodin. Nikara couldn't capitalise on his lead, brake problems putting the car on it's side. Flodin took the lead, but broke the suspension, which allowed Paddon into the lead, and later brake problems dropped him to third. He is now only 0.3 secs ahead of Jari Ketomäki.

Flodin said: “We thought it was steering at first but it’s a problem with the suspension. It’s very frustrating because this is my favourite rally and I really wanted to win here.”

Nikara is sixth overnight, with Michal Kosciuszko almost 45 secs ahead: “The morning didn’t start too well. We lost the brakes at the end of stage four and rolled the car onto the side. We had to wait for spectators to come and push us back on the road and we lost two minutes. It was a shame. Then I had an overshoot on stage six and had big tyre wear on stage nine.”

Joint Championship leader Martin Semerad's car caught fire this morning, forcing his retirement from the rally.

(Academy)

Just like the guys at the top, the WRC Academy is in for a close fight between Championship leader Egon Kaur and rally leader Craig Breen, with only 2.4 secs separating the pair.

Kaur started the day fourth, 29 secs behind then-leader Alastair Fisher. Fisher crashed out of the rally on SS7, which handed Kaur the lead. Not wanting to risk an accident and lose points, Kaur backed off and put up no challenge to the flying Breen, who made some damper changes in service & took the lead on SS11, the day's final stage.

“It was okay today with no issues. The car was working well, but I don’t want to risk making any mistakes. When I lost my rhythm a bit on stage 11 I decided to back off.” said Kaur.

The rest of the Academy drivers are all well spaced out, with Brendan Reeves the best of the rest in third, 1 min 12 secs behind Breen. Timo van der Marel took a crest too fast on SS6, but still sits fourth. Fifth is Miguel Baldoni, while sixth is Andrea Crugnola, who crashed into a ditch on SS9. Rounding out the Top 10 is Christian Riedemann, Yerey Lemes, Jan Cerny and Miko-Ove Niinimae.

Viktor Henriksson was the first of the front-running retirements. He rolled his Fiesta into retirement on SS6. He will not restart tomorrow. Alastair Fisher crashed out on the next stage, and Fredrik Ahlin followed suit, crashing out also on SS7.

Rally Finland: Day 2 review (S-WRC)

Juho Hanninen leads the S-WRC class in his Red Bull Skoda by a comfortable 1 min 17 secs over Martin Prokop. Hermann Gassner Jr. in the other Red Bull Skoda is third, but 3 mins 39.8 secs off his team-mate's red-hot pace.

“We had no problems today but it was shame for Ott because it was a good fight. It’s quite difficult now because it’s important not to take any risks and to stay concentrated.” Hanninen said.

Day 2 began with Tanak holding 8.5 secs over Hanninen. Hanninen summonsed some 'sisu' and took a full complement of fastest stage times over the first loop to take the lead going to the first remote service of the day. Tanak struck back, going quickest over SS7. SS8, Koivukehä, proved the young Estonian's undoing, spinning and stalling the Fiesta S2000. It took over three mins to restart the car, dropping him to fifth. Tanak's bad luck continued on the very next stage, but this time it was less severe.

“We had a spin and it took something like four hours to restart the engine. Then I had another spin on the next stage. It’s been frustrating today.” said the Estonian.

Away from the fight for first earlier on in the day, Martin Prokop's intercom wouldn't work properly on SS6, resulting in him not being able to hear the pacenotes being called out be co-driver Jan Tománek. He was forced to slow a little so he could keep the Fiesta on the road, and encountered some spectators crossing the stage as he came over a crest. Third overnight is Gassner Jr., who is taking at an easier pace as he gets comfortable with the Finnish stages.

Fifth behind Tanak is Frigyes Turan, who's Fiesta S2000 began misfiring during the morning. He sits 3 mins 15 secs behind Hanninen. Sixth is Bernardo Sousa, who is clawing back time lost with differential failure yesterday.

8 mins off the lead is Karl Kruuda in his front-wheel drive Fiesta S2000. He car's rear duff broke 5kms into SS4, and he has not been able to fit a replacement. Because of this, he has driven in front-wheel drive for almost 130kms of special stages, and almost 500kms of road sections.

“We had no moments but it isn’t very nice to drive with only two-wheel drive for nearly all of the day. I’m really fed up with the technical failures because I’ve had them on every SWRC event this year. I just want to drive.”

Juha Salo's Mitsubishi Lancer R4 moved into eighth place after Eyvind Byrnildsen crashed out.

(P-WRC & Academy reports to follow)

Rally Finland: Day 2 review (Top 10)

Day 3 of the Neste Oil Rally Finland is shaping up to be a thriller, with the top 3 drivers all within 2.6 secs of the lead.

Starting number one tomorrow will be 2008 winner Sebastian Loeb, 1.5 secs behind him in second is his Citroen team-mate Sebastian Ogier. Third is last year's winner Jari-Matti Latvala, who must still have Markku Alén ringing in his ears. The rally legend saying it will be a 'catastrophe' if anyone other than a Finn wins the event.

Loeb entered the day's final stage 1.9 secs behind Ogier after Loeb dropped time with a cracked windscreen, caused by stones being flicked up be Ogier's car on the Lahti superspecial. The seven-times World Champion employed the frequently used road-order tactics, coming into a time control 1 min late, handing himself a 10 sec penalty and second on the road. The plan backfired when Ogier realised what Loeb had done, and Ogier himself slowed down enough to drop behind Loeb, forcing Loeb to start first on the road tomorrow. Then both driver's plan backfired spectacularly when it emerged that Jari-Matti Latvala would start the final day in third, 2.6 secs behind leader Loeb.

Best of the rest is Petter Solberg in fourth. His private Citroen suffered severe tyre wear during today's stages, but is less than 30 secs behind leader Loeb. A further half-minute behind Solberg is Mads Ostberg in the first of the Stobart cars, despite a spin this morning. On a charge and in sixth is the other factory Ford of Mikko Hirvonen. Hirvonen lost a vast amount of time yesterday with a lot of problems in his Fiesta, the legacy of clipping a tree on the opening test of the rally. He is 28.6 secs behind Ostberg, and is looking good to catch the Norwegian.

Only 7.5 secs behind Hirvonen is the first of the MINI's. Dani Sordo is sitting 7^th, and is coming under pressure from team-mate Kris Meeke, who is eighth, and 14.8 secs behind the Spaniard. Sordo struggled with a sensor problem and misfire in the MINI, and an extremely rare mistake from Sordo almost put the car in one of the unforgiving Finnish ditches. Meeke has not had all the luck today either, his car refusing to fire up after stopping between stages. This lead to Meeke arriving 2 mins later than planned, thus the 20 sec penalty was awarded. In the confusion, neither Meeke nor co-driver Paul Nagle, who is making his début on the rally, re-secured the rear doors of the MINI, which lead to them opening & closing in the stage.

Meeke has said that he is pacing himself this weekend, to gain experience on an event that rewards experience. Meeke has only sampled the event 3 times, and all, bar 2005, have ended in retirement. His 2005 event netted him 39^th overall after he was forced to SupeRally. His 2006 start ended with a spectacular crash into the notoriously hard Finnish trees.

“I know I can drive faster on these roads. I’m coming to corners and I could have been more committed and faster, but as soon as I do that, there’s going to be a corner waiting to catch me out.”

“I would love to be fighting to win this rally. everybody would love to be fighting to win Rally Finland, but at the same time I have to be realistic. I need the experience, I need to get to know the event. If I go off the road, I have to come back here in 12 months time and start again and I won’t have gone forward for a year, that’s no good. Yes, it is frustrating that I’m not pushing harder, but this is the only way to do it. There will be plenty of time to fight in the future.” said the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Champion.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Juho Hanninen, leader of the S-WRC, and Henning Solberg, 2.1 secs behind the Finn but over 2 mins off the leaders pace.

(Full S-WRC, P-WRC and Academy reports to follow)

Rally Finland: Day 1 Review

Sebastian Loeb holds a slender lead of only 2.8 secs over his team-mate Sebastian Ogier going into Day 2 of Rally Finland.

“I’ve made no mistakes and we will see what will happen tomorrow with the road position,”

Loeb's team-mate Ogier has Loeb in his sights tomorrow, saying that he is the most important driver this weekend for him to beat. Ogier employed tactics on SS2 to drop behind his team-mate, and thus give him a better road position.

Highest of the Finns and works Fords Jari-Matti Latvala is third, just over 4 secs behind leader Loeb. He did admit that he was a little too conservative over SS1, and dropped a little time on SS2 to get himself a better road position for tomorrow.

“I was cautious on the opening stage and made a couple of small mistakes on the final test but nothing that cost time. All I'm concentrating on is tomorrow as I don't want to put extra pressure on myself, because this rally brings enough of that already. There was great excitement and pressure before the start, but now the event is under way I can relax and focus on my driving.” he said.

Jari Ketomaa took a sensational fastest time over SS1, but said he dropped time on SS2 to give himself a better position to attack tomorrow. He starts fourth tomorrow, with Petter Solberg starting fifth in his PSWRT DS3 WRC.

Fastest of the new MINI's, Dani Sordo, is sixth. An intercom issue didn't prevent him taking second fastest over the stage, and is 14.3 secs off the lead. Ott Tanak is seventh, and leading the S-WRC, in his Ford Fiesta S2000. Rounding out the Top 10 are Mads Ostberg, who said he was too cautious over today's stages, Kris Meeke, who, in his own words, is taking part in a 'high-speed recce', owing to lack of experience. In 10^th, and second in S-WRC, is Juho Hanninen. Hanninen is 8.5 secs behind Tanak in the S-WRC and 25.8 secs behind Loeb in the overall standings.

Local hero (literally, he's from Jyvaskyla), Mikko Hirvonen, is 36^th overall and over 2 mins off the lead. He slid off the stage on SS1 & hit a tree. The Fiesta RS WRC lost all power & drive for a moment, but he got going again, albeit with damaged rear suspension and brakes. He has said he will restart tomorrow and will drive 'flat out' to the finish.

“It’s disappointing because it’s the second year in a row that I’ve had problems early in my home rally, although last year was due to a crash. I wanted to fight for a win and after a strong test last week, I felt that was something I could achieve. All I can do now is drive flat out through the final two days and see how far I can climb back up the order.” Hirvonen said.

Matti Rantanen, who was expected to do well on this event, crashed 7kms into SS2. After a fast right-hander, he slid into a ditch but kept going to try to get out of the ditch, but he hit something in the ditch, and rolled the car, severely damaging the front of the car. He is unsure if he will restart tomorrow.

In the support classes, as already mentioned, Ott Tanak leads the S-WRC, with Juho Hanninen second and Martin Prokop is third, over 21secs off the lead. Jarkko Nikara holds the P-WRC lead by 0.5 sec over Patrick Flodin. Hayden Paddon, who broke his differential during Shakedown, is third, 31.1 secs behind Nikara. Alastair Fisher leads the WRC Academy by a comfortable 20secs over, Viktor Henriksson. Our very own Craig Breen is third overnight, 22.7secs behind Fisher.

No pressure for Ketomaa in Finland

Former P-WRC star Jari Ketomaa has said that he is not under any pressure to score a good finish on this weekend's Rally Finland, his home event.

“I haven’t put any pressure on me what will be the position at the end. I’m sure if we can do our normal good driving and we don’t have any technical problems with the car the result will be very good because I’m very happy with the car.”

Ketomaa will contest his home event for the eighth time in his career, but it will be the only time he has ever driven WRC machinery on the rally, after driving a Subaru Impreza WRC in the 2009 edition of the event. The rest have been behind the wheel of Group N spec Impreza's, save last year when he drove a Ford Fiesta S2000, the baby brother of the car in which he will be competing this weekend.

This weekend, he will take part in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, his first time behind the wheel of one of the new WRC cars. Ketomaa's 2009 Rally Finland on-board the Impreza WRC yielded a 7^th place finish at the end. He will be looking for a better result in the Fiesta RS WRC, but a lack of a proper test may hamper him. In all, he only got 75kms of a pre-event test in the car, but he says his prior experience of the event and the Fiesta S2000 will help compensate for his lack of testing.

“I got the whole day and at this point and I have to believe it’s enough. We got 75 kilometres and it could be less, just shakedown, so at least we have some experience, which is very useful. I knew a bit of what to expect from driving the Fiesta S2000. The engine power is good and we made some changes so I have an idea about what to expect.” he said.

Ketomaa will start at number 19 and will be run under the HJ-Autotalo team banner. Sitting alongside Ketomaa will be Mika Stenberg, with whom he has prior P-WRC experience.

Latvala acknowledges need to find limit

Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala has said he must find his limits on his home event, an event known for punishing drivers who take too many risks.

Latvala was forced to SupeRally in 2008 after he hit a rock on SS3, an accident which team boss Malcolm Wilson was not too happy with. When Latvala did return on Day 2, he took three stage wins, and another one on the final day of the rally.

After this, he began to find his limits & thus started taking wins, culminating in victory on his home event last year: “It’s such a quick rally that a driver must know his limits and be sensible. You don't want to be frightened at the wheel, but you must be able to feel the fear and recognise where those limits are.”

Latvala knows that any mistake in Finland will reduce your chances for the win, and that you need to be on the pace from the start. Lost time can be disastrous in Finland, with Colin McRae's former navigator Nicky Grist famously saying '3.5 mins is like 3.5 days in Finland'.

“The pace is such that every error in Finland is magnified, and to win you need to have a perfect drive from the first corner to the last. These are the most difficult gravel roads in the world on which to compete and so much thought has to go into the lines and braking points for jumps. The perfect jump is not too high, with the car landing on all four wheels, like a cat. It requires a higher level of concentration than any other rally.” Latvala said.

This weekend's event will be a special one in Latvala's career, with the Finn starting his 100^th rally at World Championship level, with his first being in Wales in 2002. His career to date has reaped 4 wins, 21 podiums, 385 points and 167 stage wins. An impressive resume for the 26 year old. 

2012 Monte rally route revealed

The route for the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo has been announced by the organisers of the rally.

In a change from the usual 3 day format, the rally will cover 270 timed stage miles, with a further 832 miles of non-competitive road sections. The rally will kick off with a 22.91 mile stage on Wednesday (January 18^th) morning. It will then run through Thursday and Friday, with the surviving crews being awarded a rest-halt on Saturday morning before a 14.52 mile test on Saturday afternoon. On the Sunday, the final day of the rally, the remaining cars will tackle a 3.2 mile 'Power Stage', on which the three fastest drivers will be awarded 3, 2 and 1 bonus Championship points, as per the 2011 norm. After the 'Power Stage' the traditional prize-giving will take place in Monte Carlo itself.

Below is a guide to the stages, however the official itinerary will be released by the rally organisers in due course.

Wednesday January 18

Start Valence 0800hrs

SS1 Le Moulinon – Antraigues (22.91 miles)

SS2 Burzet – St Martial (18.91 miles)

Service Valence

SS3 Le Moulinon – Antraigues (22.91 miles)

SS4 Burzet – St Martial (18.91 miles)

Service Valence

Thursday January 19

SS5 Labatie d'Andaure – Lalouvesc (12.03 miles) 
SS6 St Bonnet – St Julien Molhesabate – St Bonnet (15.95 miles)
SS7 Lamastre – Gilhoc – Alboussiere (13.62 miles)

Service Valence

SS8 Labatie d'Andaure – Lalouvesc (12.03 miles) 

SS9 St Bonnet – St Julien Molhesabate – St Bonnet (15.95 miles)
SS10 Lamastre – Gilhoc – Alboussiere (13.62 miles)

Service Valence

Friday January 20

SS11 St Jean en Royans – Font d'Urle (14.32 miles)
SS12 Cimetiere de Vassieux – Col de Gaudissart (14.99 miles)

Service Valence

SS13 Montauban – Eygalayes (18.57 miles)

Parc Ferme Monaco 

Saturday January 21

SS14 Moulinet – La Bollene Vesubie (14.54 miles)
SS15 Lantosque – Luceram (11.68 miles) 1554

Service Monaco

SS16 Moulinet – La Bollene Vesubie (14.54 miles)

SS17 Lantosque – Luceram (11.68 miles) 2014

Service Monaco

Sunday January 22

SS18 Ste Agnes – Co de la Madone (3.20 miles)

Service Monaco

Finish/Prize-Giving Monaco

New cheaper S2000's planned for 2013

A second-generation of the current Super 2000 cars could be introduced in 2013.

Peugeot Sport's Bertrand Vallat said that both Peugeot and Skoda are in talks with the FIA about the introduction of a new version of S2000 cars, which will cut costs of the cars by half.

Peugeot and Skoda have already built S2000 cars, the 207 and Fabia, respectively. There have been S2000 cars built by many other manufacturers, which have been successful on the world stage, such as Ford's Fiesta S2000 and Fiat's Punto Abarth S2000. Toyota built two cars, the Auris and the Corolla, which have been very successful in South Africa, but have never really been rallied outside of SA. Proton are currently dominating the APRC with their works-entered Satria Neo's too.

This may sound like an impressive list, but at the recent Volkswagen Rally in South Africa, there were 18 S2000 cars in the entry list, but 9 were either works-entered or had a major backer. Skoda Motorsport is funded by Skoda themselves, and Peugeot UK and Peugeot France are funded by Peugeot's UK and French branches. Proton's cars are works run, too.

This shows that for privateers it is very difficult to get an S2000 drive, with either a vast personal wealth or a major sponsor needed to purchase, or even hire, one of these cars, with the cars costing upwards on €200,000 to buy.

If this new set of technical regulations for the S2000 cars, which will be powered by 1.6 turbo engines, similar to today's WRC cars, is ratified by the FIA, it could cut the costs of the S2000 cars to a more affordable €100,000.

“Skoda and Peugeot are talking with the FIA for a new car from 2013. It will be a standard car with a 1.6 turbo based on a future model. We are trying to cut the technical cost by half. It will be a big challenge to reduce this cost but we will be working hard with the FIA to achieve this. The category could be good." Vallat said to respected reporter Colin Clark.

Loeb not pushing for Finnish win

Sebastian Loeb has said that he will not push his limits in order to take a second win on this weekend's Rally Finland.

Loeb says that victory is not an objective that has to be completed, but pushing to win & risking his 17 point lead in the Championship is not an option. How the DS3 WRC handles the fast gravel roads will determine his approach, he says.

“Victory in Finland isn’t an out-and-out objective. Depending on how I feel I’ll see how hard I want to push. So far I’ve felt very much at ease on gravel in the DS3 WRC. If that’s how I feel in Finland, it’ll give my confidence an extra boost.”

The seven-times World Champion won the event for the first, and so far only, time in his glittering career three years ago. He was under attack from Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen right to the end, but held on to the rally lead from start to finish. Hirvonen struck back a year later, leading from SS2, and Loeb had to admit defeat.

However, he says that the super-quick gravel stages don't go well with his driving style, but this a different story for his Finnish rivals, as they know the terrain like 'the back of their hand'.

“But it’s not my favourite terrain. Maybe these roads don’t suit my natural style of driving. On the other hand the Finns are very much at home on them. They probably feel they’re taking fewer risks in an environment they know like the back of their hand. I remember that I had to give 200 per cent to win this rally. The titles at the end of the season are the priority.” he added.

Loeb currently holds a 17 point lead over his chief local rival Mikko Hirvonen. Loeb's team-mate Sebastian Ogier is 22 points behind Loeb, and is confident that he can win the event. However, this may prove a difficult, if near-impossible, task, with seven Finnish drivers WRC car mounted, and all in with a chance of victory in their home event.

Makinen to test new Impreza

Four-times World Champion Tommi Mäkinen is set to showcase Subaru's latest rally car, the Impreza R4.

Mäkinen's last full works World Rally drive was with Subaru in 2003, when he drove an Impreza S9 WRC to eighth in the championship. Mäkinen's final victory was with Subaru too, 2002's Rallye Monte Carlo. His final World Rally, 2003 Wales Rally GB, yielded a third place finish, after fighting with Colin McRae, who was also to retire after the rally. McRae suffered a puncture and ultimately took fourth.

The Finn will test the new car over a stage on his family farm near Puuppola, which is near Rally Finland base Jyväskylä. Nearby the test stage is Mäkinen's rally preparation firm, Tommi Mäkinen Racing. TMR formed a successful partnership with Subaru Technica International and now builds and sells Group N spec Imprezas. Since the introduction of the R4 class, TMR has supplied an upgrade kit to convert Group N Imprezas to R4 spec.

TMR will run PG Andersson on next weekend's Rally Finland in an Impreza R4. The rally will mark the car's World Rally début. Three R4 cars are entered next weekend, with the other two cars being Mitsubishi Lancer R4's for Juho Salo and Paulo Nobre. Salo is gunning for victory this year after crashing out in spectacular style on the same corner that claimed Gigi Galli in 2008.

Latvala tipped for Finland win

Finnish rally legend Markku Alén has tipped Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala for victory on next weekend's Rally Finland.

“I have to say that I think Jari-Matti Latvala is a little bit sharper and hungrier at the moment. Mikko Hirvonen is maybe thinking more of taking points [because of his position in the Drivers Standings], he seems a bit nervous, and that maybe means that he is not driving as naturally as he could.”

During his career that spanned over 20 years, Alén took 19 wins, including 6 wins on his home event. He never claimed the coveted Drivers Championship, he came closest in 1986, but did claim the 1978 FIA Cup for Drivers, driving a Fiat 131 Abarth &, towards the end of the season, the Lancia Startos HF. That year, he won three events, finished second twice and third once. Alén spent most of his career at either Fiat or Lancia, from 1974 to 1989. He left Lancia at the end of 1990, moving to Subaru, where he enjoyed a less than successful time. In his 11 starts for the team, he failed to finish on seven occasions. He joined Toyota in 1992, scoring three fourth places and a podium in Finland. Afterwards, Alén made a couple of appearances, including débuting the then new Subaru Impreza 555.

However, with a healthy local entry of 8 WRC car mounted drivers looking for the win, Alén says that it will be a 'catastrophe' if anyone other than a Finn wins next weekend. It will be an even bigger catastrophe if one of the WRC car mounted Frenchmen wins, as it's a 'Finland vs. France' at this present time. One of the aforementioned Frenchmen is keen to make it Finland 1-France 7 [see the story here].

“Well, if it isn't a Finn who wins, this is a catastrophe. It's a huge source of national pride, as it’s Finland versus France at the moment. I don't mind who wins as long as he is Finnish.” Alén said.

Preparations for Rally Isle of Man hotting up

Organisers of the Rally Isle of Man are preparing the event for it's début as a autumn event, when it rounds out the British Rally Championship for the first time.

The 48^th staging of the infamous tarmac event will now be held at the end of October, instead of the end of July/start of August, as has been the standard for the past decade. But, late last year, the organisers of the event decided to have the event run as the final round of the BRC, as had been before it changed dates over a decade ago.

“We know there are many people asking when the event is on, many who expect it to be in the next few weeks. Our message to all our supporters, old and new, is to gear up for October, and we hope you’ll all be a part of a new chapter for Rally Isle of Man!” said Les Postlethwaite, Rally Director.

Along with the 48^th running of the Rally Isle of Man, it will be the Silver Jubilee of the Isle of Man Historic Rally, the very event that started the very popular historic rallying in Britain.

The Rally Isle of Man will take place over the 27^th -29^th October.

Ogier says Finland win possible

Sebastian Ogier has said he can win next week's Rally Finland, on only his fourth time tackling the event.

The Citroen driver says he knows that victory will be difficult, but not impossible: "Julien [Ingrassia] and I are motivated like never before. We know it's going to be one of the most difficult rallies of the year as we're up against the Finns. But beating them isn't impossible.”

Ogier will tackle the event for the third time in a WRC car next weekend. His first attempt was in a Citroen C2 R2 Max in 2008, in 35^th overall. He graduated to the Citroen Junior Team for 2009, and thus gaining a World Rally Car drive. He took 6^th at the end. Last year he finished second, 10 secs behind winner Jari-Matti Latvala.

"Last year, I was a bit surprised to finish so close to the winner [Latvala]. And we lost the ten seconds at the start of the rally when we were finding our marks."

The French have a good history in Finland, with two of the four non-Nordics ever to win the rally being French, the two drivers being Didier Auriol and Sebastian Loeb. Auriol had a good history on the event, taking, aside from his 1992 victory, four podiums. Loeb, too, has a good history, taking five podiums and a win in the last six years. Ogier will be looking to follow in the footsteps of the two French rally legends.

Ogier says he will push from the start, something he didn't do last year, something he says cost him victory on last year's event: "My aim is to put myself in a confident frame of mind right from the green light and to really push in the opening kilometres. That's what was missing last year."

The Frenchman knows that victory will be a tall order, especially against the brace of Finns that are taking part in this year's event. Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala, Kimi Raikkonen, Matti Rantanen, Jari Ketomaa, Janne Tuohino and Mattias Therman are all World Rally Car mounted, and all are looking for victory on their home event. Even with this list of possible winners, Ogier is still convinced that he can overcome all of them to win the 'Gravel Grand Prix'.

"I'm going to do everything I can to be on the pace right from the first stage," said Ogier. "It's important to bag a big haul of points in Finland. We know it's going to be a difficult rally against local drivers who are always redoubtable on their home turf. But a victory here isn't beyond our grasp.”

I've still got it, says Atkinson

Chris Atkinson says that he still has the speed to compete in the top echelons of rallying.

"Anybody who thinks I can't drive anymore should think again. This has been a fantastic season so far with Proton; the car's really come good this year, thanks to some fantastic work from the team, and I feel I'm driving better than ever.”

The Aussie is an ex-World Championship star, formerly driving for the Subaru World Rally Team alongside now privateer Petter Solberg. Atkinson's WRC career started in 2005 when he shared his points nomination with ex-Formula 1 test driver Stéphane Sarazzin. Atkinson scored his first podium on the Rally Japan in 2005, Sarazzin was dropped at the end of 2006, with Atkinson taking over the second car full time. Atkinson, and team-mate Petter Solberg had a long run of horrid luck until 2008, when Atkinson took 5 podiums, including one in Finland with the then-new Impreza WRC2008, the car's only third event. Solberg scored a second place on the car's début & fought for victories for the rest of the season. Atkinson ended his career with Subaru on a low note, after crashing spectacularly at the season-ending Wales Rally GB. Days after, Subaru announced their withdrawal from the WRC, leaving Atkinson & Solberg out in the cold.

Atkinson made a one-off appearance with the Citroen Junior World Rally team at the start of 2008, on the season opening Rally Ireland. He took fifth place after a few off's, one spectacular one in which he cut a telephone pole in two. After his Citroen outing, he went quiet for a while before signing with the Proton team. He drove the car in some APRC events in 2010, and in 2011 will take part in 10 IRC events and the entire APRC calendar.

Atkinson, 30, says that driving the S2000 Proton Satria Neo has made him a better driver, citing that you must drive the car hard to extract it's full potential, saying: "Driving a Super 2000 car like the Satria Neo has made me a more complete driver. You absolutely have to commit to everything with these kind of cars and we're doing that. I've got a lot to give in this sport, but right now I'm focused on winning the APRC title with Proton."

Atkinson's next event is the Rally Hokkaido in Japan, which runs from 1st-2^nd October. Atkinson currently leads the drivers standings by 21 points over his Proton team-mate Alistair McRae, and Proton Motorsports currently commands a substantial lead in the teams table, 77 points to be precise. It's a similar story in the manufacturers standings, with Proton holding 14 points over nearest rivals Mitsubishi. Currently, it looks like Proton and the driving partnership of Atkinson/McRae seem to be the one's to beat in this Championship.